Before you set out for a pint of Guinness this St. Patrick's Day, you may want to consider statistics from last year's celebration and forecasts for this year's Irish night.

Personal finance website WalletHub released a study detailing Irish ancestry in the U.S., drunk driving incidents and average spending on St. Patrick's Day.

The data reveals that St. Patrick's Day is becoming increasingly popular in the U.S., which places an emphasis on policing safety and sanitation needs on a holiday that generates crowded bars. Michelle F. Weinberger, assistant professor at Northwestern University, said that the day used to be about celebrating a once-stigmatized population, and now it's "become synonymous with binge drinking for some."

"St. Patrick's Day has become a bigger and arguably more important cultural festival in the U.S. than in Ireland," Weinberger said in a statement. "The social festivals are where these critiques about commercialization appear the most as retailers sell stereotypical, although often not authentically Irish, accessories for the day."

That level of promotion may also encourage spending as much green as you're wearing. While it's common to overspend when you've had a few pints—beer sales do drive the bar industry on St. Patrick's day—it's smart a strict budget before leaving home

Michael A. Levin, associate professor of marketing at Otterbein University, also suggests sticking to the bar special instead of opting for non-featured beers to get the best deal. Local beer snobs may find that a task too tough to bear on this beer-centric day. Instead of pints of locally made craft brews, they'd be ordering pints from larger beer companies.